I am playing hooky from writing my other work, 'The Oblation of Obi-Wan Kenobi,' to write this plot bunny instead. It's a one-shot. I just can't get Anakin/Obi-Wan out of my head.
There, on the burning surface of Mustafar, it seemed as if the world froze.
No…! Obi-Wan thought in cold horror, as his blade plunged clean through one side of the black tunic and burst out the other.
The saber retracted in the Jedi's hand, and he dropped it with a dull thud. This wasn't supposed to happen! It was an unintentional stroke, a fluke, a lucky blow Obi-Wan had never thought would land.
Anakin's eyes bulged in their sockets. A strangled gasp bubbled from the young man's lips as he crumpled to the scorched earth, hands cradling his wounds as a look of shock passed over his features. His eyes were big and wide, fearful, confused, flashing blue and then gold. Obi-Wan Kenobi would never forget that horrible look of shock and surprise, not as long as he lived. As if, in that instant, his Apprentice forgot why he found himself facing his Master. As if he had not expected that Obi-Wan would actually hurt him.
Anakin's eyes were wild, searching Obi-Wan's face with desperation.
"M-master…h-help me…I c-can't…can't…brea—!" The fallen Sith wheezed and coughed, his pleading eyes piercing Obi-Wan's heart as blood frothed from his mouth, the mouth that was working horribly as it gulped for breaths he could not take.
The air smelled of sulfur and death; every lesson and proverb of the Jedi screamed at Obi-Wan to slay him quickly and return to aid Yoda, but that was wrong—he couldn't—!
Sith or not, he could not leave him.
With an anguished cry, Obi-Wan threw himself down beside his fallen adversary, all thoughts of duty forgotten as he pressed his hands to the holes in Anakin's chest. Obi-Wan should not have tried to save him, but he could not help himself. The youth's shaking hands seized upon his own, ardent as they, too, trembled to hold back the tide of red flowing freely into the sand. He was crying, shaking, and frightened. Not a Sith, traitor, murderer, or child-killer, but his Apprentice, his Padawan, his brother, his child!
Obi-Wan reached for the light, pushing into his Apprentice's chest. Urging it deeper into his body, begging it to keep him breathing. To give him just a little bit of time.
"Breathe! Anakin, breathe!" He commanded, and, like music to his ears, Anakin's lungs inflated ever so slightly, the fraction of instinctive Force-healing buying him just enough to get a wet-sucking breath into the pair of ruined organs.
The dazed gold cloud in the new Sith's eyes lifted as if reality suddenly rushed back to the boy whose face was now streaked with tears of confusion. Even as Anakin hacked and coughed, his first attempt to speak came out as a sob. "I f-failed…I failed…P-padmé…tell her… tell her…I'm sorry…"
"Tell her yourself." Obi-Wan rasped, fingers tangling with the sweaty, bloodstained curls as he briefly cupped Anakin's anguished purple face. The younger man was staring up at him with a pleading look, his eyes locked with Obi-Wan's as if begging for salvation.
"You will survive, I swear it." The Jedi ordered, something fierce and irrational burbling up inside of him as he gathered Anakin in his arms. In his desperation, Obi-Wan lifted him as if he were nothing.
With all possible haste, he retreated to Padmé's ship, following after the medroids who had boarded with the injured Padmé in tow. Even when he handed Anakin to the med-droid, knowing full well he should be attending Padmé, Obi-Wan couldn't bear to let go of Anakin's bloody hand.
Attachment. It was nothing short of attachment. But Obi-Wan was unwilling to entertain any guilt. While there was life, there was hope, and he hoped, he hoped that somehow, the atrocities of Anakin Skywalker could be blotted out.
As the med-droids pumped air into his lungs, re-inflating them and restoring the flow of oxygen, Anakin's wild blue eyes never left those of his Jedi Master. The half-conscious Sith mumbled into the oxygen mask, snatches of words that Obi-Wan could barely understand.
"…Padmé…Padmé… save her."
"Padmé is safe, Anakin. She is safe."
"…No…!" He protested. "…no! I need—I need…!"
The med-droids sedated him before he could finish the sentence.
Before Obi-Wan could think further, his communicator chimed with the croaking voice of Master Yoda.
"Master Kenobi, destroyed, Sidious is. Victorious, are you?"
Obi-Wan swallowed hard. His eyes never leaving the body of his butchered Padawan. How could he call this victory? But how, also, could he admit to having allowed the murderer to survive?
"I copy Master Yoda. I—" He hesitated. "I have Anakin in custody."
All the response he received was a crackle of static. After a long breath, Yoda's voice came again.
"Disobeyed me, you have."
"Yes, Master. I am sorry. But I—"
"Answer not. The Force's will, it is."And with that, the transmission ended.
When Padmé went into labor prematurely, Obi-Wan pealed himself from Anakin's side and moved to attend her. He comforted her as best he could, but, even so, his mind remained with Anakin. It was not until the children were born, and their mother was resting, that his exhausted body limped back to where his heart longed to be: at the side of his Padawan.
Anakin was awake, but just barely, heavily sedated and attached to a rebreather. The lids of his eyes drooped as he followed Obi-Wan's weary frame into the room. There was no point in lying to him about the children. It was a small ship, and he was sure to have heard the screaming.
"You have two healthy children, Anakin." Obi-Wan told him hoarsely, sitting heavily beside him. "And Padmé is recovering admirably."
"…sh-she…is safe …? She's…alright…?!" Anakin slurred, a kaleidoscope of emotions playing across his face.
"Yes, Anakin." Obi-Wan nodded tiredly. "She is alright."
Without warning, Anakin's chest began to heave. To Obi-Wan's alarm, he thought at first that the boy's lungs had collapsed once more. As the med-droids buzzed around in an attempt to sedate him, it took Obi-Wan a moment to realize that it was not that his Padawan could not breathe, but rather, that he was beginning to sob.
"Anakin…?!" Obi-Wan said questioningly, seizing the blood-stained hand once more as the droids introduced a stronger sedative into the younger man's veins. "Anakin…calm yourself…" He ordered. But, of course, such a command was futile.
"What have I done, Master?!" He sobbed, his voice suddenly clear and coherent. "Kill me…! I cannot live with what I've done…!"
"No, Anakin! No. I never meant—" Obi-Wan paused as he felt himself whirling with emotion. "I don't understand, Anakin…! What do you mean?"
"I thought—I thought she would die if I didn't…if I didn't…"
And then he began sobbing once more.
The tranquilizers injected by the med-droids seemed to be having no effect, so, in an effort to calm him, Obi-Wan reached out to touch his mind. It was stormy and tempestuous. Conflicted. But not the twisted cold from Mustafar.
"Anakin…!" He called, leaning over the med-cot. "Anakin! Listen to me! What do you mean?"
Anakin was too distressed to even hear his voice as the indicators screamed their warnings; the younger man's vital scores danced wildly on the chart above his bed with no sign of being soothed by the drugs in his system.
He needed to be calmed, or he would undo all the work done to keep him alive. And so, Obi-Wan did the only thing he could think to do.
He crawled into the med-cot alongside the sobbing young man.
It took a moment of maneuvering, but after mounting the creaking frame, Obi-Wan tucked the sobbing youth into his side, cradling him to his chest as his sobs died down ever-so-slightly. Anakin's eyes opened in surprise, but after a moment, he leaned into Obi-Wan's chest, pressing his bare cheek into his bosom as if he wished he could disappear into the soft fabric of the Jedi's robes.
"She was supposed to…s-supposed to die in child-birth…the Chancellor…he promised…it was the only…the only way…to save her…"
"Shhh….Anakin. Just breathe. What was the only way to save her?"
Anakin mumbled an answer into his Master's ribs, sobbing breathlessly as he choked out, "the Sith…the Darkside….Oh, Force…what have I done…? Obi-Wan…?!"
"Just breathe, Anakin." Obi-Wan shushed, cradling him closer as the pieces fell into place.
As his sobs died down, Obi-Wan pressed a kiss to the crown of his head. His own eyes blurred with tears.
The entire Jedi Order had fallen at the hands of Anakin Skywalker. And Sith Hells curse him, but despite it all, Obi-Wan could not help but still love him. His stupid, foolish, arrogant, idiotic Padawan had sold his soul to a devil. Not for power. Not for ideology. But to save his beloved.
Obi-Wan's world was gone. His family. Hundreds of Jedi. Snuffed out cruelly and senselessly by the Jedi in Obi-Wan's arms, who had thought the Order's rules did not apply to him. But Obi-Wan still could not bring himself to kill him. Or to do anything but embrace him, cradling him to his side as if he were still a boy whose gravest sin was pranking his fellow Padawans.
"The time to discuss this will come. But for now, just keep breathing. I will take care of the rest."
Anakin did not hear him. He was already deep in a sedated sleep.
His feverish strength had at last given out in the safety of Obi-Wan's embrace, soothed by faith in his Master's care. Even in his slumber, Obi-Wan sensed as the last of the Darkness departed Anakin's spirit, the Light returning to fill his Padawan. In some strange way, it felt as if all the Force sighed with relief at the aversion of some unnameable horror.
The core of the Jedi's soul shook as he suddenly considered what could have been if he had not carried Anakin back from the burning sands. And all Obi-Wan could do was hold Anakin tighter, weeping at the sudden certainty that somehow, some way, he had just narrowly avoided an even greater tragedy.
Obi-Wan did not care what the future might bring. His place was with Anakin. Where it always had been and always would be. Two fates intertwined. Brother and brother, parent and child, knit together forevermore.
Author's Epilogue that I was too lazy to write: Anakin has fulfilled the Chosen One prophecy by destroying the Sith. With Obi-Wan as his advocate, he is deemed to be at least partially responsible for Operation Knightfall, but his sentencing is mitigated by his not having been in his right mind. He is placed on house arrest on Naboo where he raises Luke and Leia with Padmé. Obi-Wan and Yoda rebuild the Order with all the surviving Jedi. Everyone lives happily ever after and Obi-Wan gets to be a grandpa. The end.